The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• Insurance Rates Are Soaring for US Homeowners in Climate Danger Zones: Research shows the soaring costs hint at widespread, unpriced risk as the global climate warms, with states like California, Florida, and Louisiana hit hardest. (Wired)
• Why Zillow is worried about America’s housing market shakeup. The company’s stock has dropped nearly 13% since Friday’s $418 million settlement between the National Association of Realtors and groups of home sellers which ended the standard 6% commission for Realtors. (CNN)
• What Must Nelson Peltz Do to Get Some Respect? The longtime corporate agitator feels misunderstood. Maybe his fight with Disney could change that. (New York Times)
• Reddit is going public. Will its unruly user base revolt? Reddit could become the next meme stock — or flop. (Vox) see also How the House quietly revived the TikTok ban before most of us noticed: An unusually fast process. A classified briefing. Phone lines clogged with teenagers ‘in near tears.’ The bill, meant to force the sale of TikTok, passed by a landslide. (The Verge)
• How Does Paris Stay Paris? By Pouring Billions Into Public Housing: One quarter of residents in the French capital live in government-owned housing, part of an aggressive plan to keep lower-income Parisians — and their businesses — in the city. (New York Times)
• Backyard Bird Diary: While watching hummingbirds buzz around me, I recalled a fantasy every child has: that I could win the trust of wild animals and they would willingly come to me. I imagined tiny avian helicopters dining on my palm. To lure them, I bought Lilliputian hummingbird feeders, four for $10. Hope came cheap enough, but I was also realistic. It might take months to gain a hummingbird’s interest in the feeder and for it to lose its fear of me. (Paris Review)
• Large language models, explained with a minimum of math and jargon: Want to really understand how large language models work? Here’s a gentle primer (Understanding AI) see also Watch an A.I. Learn to Write by Reading Nothing but _____; The core of an A.I. program like ChatGPT is something called a large language model: an algorithm that mimics the form of written language. (NYT)
•Aboard the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Battling the Houthis in the Red Sea: Aboard the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Battling the Houthis in the Red Sea. Except, aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is not a drill. For two months, the 5,000 sailors and pilots on board have carried out a near daily and nightly task: find and destroy weapons storage sites, missile systems, air defense systems, radars and missile launchers before the Houthi militia uses the weapons to find and destroy commercial ships in the Red Sea. (New York Times)
• Inside the Glorious Afterlife of Roger Federer: Nearly two years after he walked away from tennis, Roger Federer has found a different rhythm to life—and an exciting new set of challenges. Now, in his most wide-ranging interview since his retirement, Federer reflects on his old rivals, his new passions, and the fresh sense of urgency that drives him: “I feel minutes matter more now than before.” (GQ)
• The Princess Bride: An oral history: Is this a kissing book? (Entertainment Weekly)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist at Schwab. She also sits on the Investment Policy Committee. helping to oversee the $8.5 trillion on the Schwab platform. She is has been named one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Finance” by American Banker.
100s of small banks will default because of real estate
Source: Semafor
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To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.
